Pray for Houston

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

• The Duty of Prayer
• Intercession for Houston and the Nation
• Lincoln’s Call to Humble Ourselves
• The Lord’s Supper

The Duty of Prayer

Good morning. I feel like I just went to a Thrive banquet. Got all the stats, got all, I like that, I like that slogan, expand always, always expand. You know? I think I’m going to apply that one to my life, you know? Oh, that’s not the kind of expanding she’s talking about. But expanding the kingdom, amen. Amen to that. We need more kingdom, less, okay. So this morning we’re going to look at the Word, we’re going to pray, and we’re going to break bread. You may have heard that the President of the United States declared today a National Day of Prayer, specifically for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and also for the healing of divisions in our country. So I thought it would be good if we cooperated with the civil government for a change. No, I’m just kidding. I mean, when they actually encourage us to do something godly, we should do that. You know what I mean? It’s a rare treat. So I would like for us to pray today, but before we do, I just want to say a few words about prayer. And you know when I say few, you never know what that means. Many Scriptures, we could look at many Scriptures, we’ll just look at a few on prayer. I’m not going to expound one passage, but rather talk about the topic of prayer briefly. It just so happens as Pastor Mike mentioned, as we head into the new life group season, we’re focusing on prayer. So coincidentally, hey, we need to be a people of prayer, amen.

Many texts, just go to, geez, where do we begin? There’s so many. Go to the end of Ephesians. And you’ll find this often in Paul’s epistles, in addition to many examples of prayer where he just prays and we have model prayers, often at the end of his epistles, he actually exhorts to prayer. Here in Ephesians 6, he had the Christian warfare and he says toward the end, after he says in verse 17, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” he says, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” So he says, pray always, all prayer, pray in the Spirit, pray with perseverance, pray with vigilance, pray, pray, pray. Book of Philippians, see the same sort of thing. Chapter 4. In chapter 4 verse 4 he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” So these are just two of many texts where we are exhorted, you might even say commanded, to pray. Pray always, pray vigilantly, pray with perseverance, pray, pray, pray. As I was thinking about the subject of prayer, I was thinking about how in modern evangelicalism we tend to sell the Bible, meaning, we only want to talk about the Bible in positive terms, you know what I mean? So what you get is this emphasis on the blessing of doing this and the blessing of doing this and the blessing of doing this and the reward for this and the positive things you get when you do such and such. Now, that’s actually true, it’s actually true that when you walk according to the Word you get blessed, amen? I mean, the godly life ends up being the blessed life. As it turns out, I mean, it seems like a contradiction. Jesus says, if you want to find your life, you lose it. Well, who wants to lose their life, right? So there’s paradoxes, but the fact is, the Christian life’s the blessed life. But the irony is that you only find the blessedness of the Christian life when you don’t seek the blessedness. You tracking with me? You’re like, yeah, you didn’t sleep very well last night, did you? What I mean is that the constant appeal to the blessings of the Christian life appeals to not the highest motives that we ought to have. You’re tracking with me? And the danger is that Christianity, God, Jesus, become a means to an end, rather than the end themselves. And so what happens is unwittingly we talk about seeking God, but we’re really talking about getting the blessings from God. And so God becomes a means to a more ultimate end, yet in Scripture what we’re taught is that God’s the ultimate end. That God is the blessedness of all blessedness. That’s a real word in the Bible, believe it or not, when it says in Psalms, “Blessed is the man,” it’s plural. Blessedness is, blessed, multiple blessings on the man who walks in the way of the Lord. The problem is our hearts. [audio unclear] But then he says, beware, because you might start trusting in my blessings. You might start leaning on the blessings, right? And so, blessings from God are like a two-edged sword. They’re awesome, and we get them, but when we start seeking them above God, we take a good thing and make it a bad thing. So as I thought about prayer, in light of the President’s proclamation, the word that came to my mind was the word duty. And the duty of prayer, I thought, and I was praying, I was like, God, I don’t want to talk about the duty of prayer, because people don’t like the word duty. Duty is dirty. Duty is a bad word, because duty sounds like, ugh, the law, legalism. You mean I have to do this even if I don’t want to do this? Yuck! That’s oppressive. Well, there’s a very simple principle in the Bible that I want to share with you. Maybe I’ve shared it before. It’s not stated, but it’s implied everywhere. And it’s this. You taking notes? You should take this note. In the Bible, God commands to our weakness. I’m going to say it again so you can write it down. In the Bible, God commands to our weakness.

In Galatians, where Paul talks about the flesh and the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, after he talks about the fruit of the Spirit, which is just like awesome stuff, right? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And he says this, “Against such there is no law.” Well, of course not. Who wants the law against love, right? No, you want a law against hate maybe, but you don’t want a law against love because they’re good things. So why do we have commands in the Bible? Why are they even necessary? It’s because of what theologians call the Fall. What happened when our original parents sinned? What happened in what’s called the Fall? That’s the original sin, right? What happened? Well, many things happened, but one of the things that happened in the Fall is that our founding mother and father left a position of dependence on God, turned away, but the turning away wasn’t a turning away to nothingness, it was a turning away towards self. It was a turning away from intimacy and dependence on God and resorting to self-dependence. When the serpent came to Eve and said, you know, God said this, but he really meant this, and she’s pondering. Hmm. Yeah, maybe. So she had a divine word. She knew the will of God. But she no longer was willing to depend on that word. Rather, she relied not just on the word of the evil one, she really relied on her own wisdom, her own decision, her own will. And the Fall produced self-interest in the worst sense of that word. Now, let me stress this. I believe in self-reliance the way it’s often used. But when it comes to God, we are dependent. And this is one of the most fundamental realities of the spiritual life, to understand that in reality, even though you have your thing out with your calendar and your day timer and you got everything organized and you got your money put away for the next 20 years and you’ve got this and you got that. You think you’ve all got it in control. This is not, it’s not the case. The Lord reigns in heaven and on earth. Okay. And there are thousands of people now in Texas without homes who’ve lost everything. Right? And I can guarantee you, many of them did not plan. It wasn’t in their day timer, lose your home next week to a hurricane. It wasn’t the plan. So, we are not in control. The point is that in our attitude and disposition, we need to remember and realize our dependence, and I stress utter dependence on God for everything. This is what Jesus taught us in the sermon. He says, why are you stressing out about food and clothing and money? Why are you stressing out about this? Look at the sparrows. Look at the lilies. Look, God’s in control. Seek Him. Seek Him. Seek His kingdom. These things will be provided for you. Now, what does this have to do with the word duty that came to my mind? It’s that because of the Fall, our self-inclination is such that we don’t depend on God. We don’t. How many times, if we were honest, prayer ends up being the last resort. Well, I tried this, that didn’t work. I tried that, that didn’t work. I tried this, that didn’t work. Oh shoot, I got to pray. Oh shoot, I got to ask God to get me out of this situation. Which I could have asked Him a long time ago, but I didn’t, because I’m so darn self-reliant. Right? And so we, because of our inclination to self-dependence, God says, depend on Me. Because that’s what prayer is. Prayer, in one of its most fundamental meanings, is a recognition of our dependence on God. Amen? When we pray, we’re saying something very profound, especially when we intercede for others or supplicate for ourselves. We’re saying something very, very profound that we need to be reminded of. It’s not complicated, but it’s important. Actually, the most important truths are not complicated. [audio unclear] When people are in crisis, like in Texas, the realization of the need is brought to the forefront of everyone’s consciousness. Oh my gosh, we can’t get out of this. Oh my gosh, we’re not in control of the weather. Oh my gosh, maybe we should pray. But the truth is, we need God all the time. We just often don’t realize it. And so when God commands us to pray, He’s trying to shift our focus from self-reliance to God-reliance because He commands to our weakness, and our weakness is to rely on ourselves when we ought to be relying on Him. Now a footnote, and then we’re going to pray. Prayer is not a substitute for responsible action. Remember in James where James refers to the guy who, his poor brother’s in need and he says, be warmed and filled, go in peace. He gives them, he prays for them, gives him a blessing but doesn’t give him anything. And James calls that hypocrisy, right? So to pray doesn’t mean you don’t do anything, depending on the situation. Sometimes you can’t do anything. But in other cases you can. So as we go to God and intercede for those in Texas, as we intercede for the healing of the divisions in our nation, I’m not suggesting that we pray only and do nothing. As a matter of fact, the elders are looking at the opportunities of how we as a community can help those in Texas. And so we’re investigating currently ways that we can help, whether it’s a financial gift or gathering of supplies, different ways to possibly help those. So, and we’ll be informing you in the near future about a way that we as a church can actively help. But prayer is not an inferior means of help. So as we go to God in prayer, we’re acknowledging that ultimately we need Him. And as we pray for those who have been hit by the hurricane, pray for healing for our nation, I would also encourage all of us to be praying really for revival. Because I believe that God takes very, very tragic things like a hurricane and many people dying, many people displaced. He takes things like this and He uses it for good. And people, they get shook up. And they’re in a state of awareness to things that they weren’t before. And so some people listen to what’s called the hand of providence. And God can use this for good to draw men and women to His Son Jesus. But also I believe that if we’re going to see real healing in our nation from the many divisions, I believe that will only be possible through the Lord Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can transcend the hatred that some have because of race and class and gender and political persuasion. Only Jesus can do this. Amen. You want to give it up for Jesus? I know you do. And Jesus can do this, but part of how Jesus does this is through His people, through His people praying and through His people sharing the good news of Christ. So we’re really praying for revival, the advancement of the kingdom on earth, if you will. Jesus taught us to pray that, right? Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come, right? So we’re praying also for the kingdom and for revival. So we’re going to open the mic up and have a time of prayer. Toward the end of the time of prayer, I’ll give a brief introduction to communion, and then we’ll take the Lord’s Supper together. So the mic is here as the Lord leads you, invites you to come up and pray for Texas, pray for the nation, and pray as the Lord leads you.

Intercession for Houston and the Nation

Lord we thank You for this opportunity as a body of believers to come before Your throne of grace and it is a throne of grace. We acknowledge, Lord, that apart from the crucified and risen One that sits on the throne that we’re approaching, if it were not for Him we couldn’t come. But Lord Jesus You have made a way by Your shed blood and Your resurrection. And we thank You that You invite us to come boldly to this throne of mercy and grace. We ask that Your Holy Spirit guide our time now, Lord, as we pray. For those in Texas, pray for our nation. Hear us, Lord God, and hear us for Your glory we pray. Lord, I want to intercede for people living in Houston in the surrounding areas and ask, God, that You would be merciful and gracious to them. I pray, God, that You would use this natural disaster to draw people to You, God. Oftentimes for some people, God, it takes something stark or horrible for them, for You to get their attention, God. Use this, Lord, for those that are hardened, for those that are atheists, for those that are so-called believers, to grab their attention, Lord, and to grab their heart, God. I pray You’d give wisdom and discernment to the churches in Texas, to those closest by that can give the easiest aid, Lord, that they would be able to dive in completely, Lord, and help out. I pray, God, that You would give wisdom to our civil government which usually just throws money at issues and things that will solve things, God. So give them wisdom with the resources they have to use them, God. Lord, I pray You’d be glorified in the midst of this. I pray You’d use our church, Lord, if You want us to go down there on a short mission trip, if You want us to give aid, if You want us to send supplies, Lord. We want to do that and we will. So open up the doors and make that obvious for us, Lord. I pray for the believers down there that this would embolden them in their faith to share, Lord, with those that have lost everything, to those affected by the flood, God. You would use this to get their eyes off themselves. You would use this to get them rid of materialism in their heart, God, and to open their mouth maybe even for the first time and to share hope, Lord, as they’re shoveling mud, God. Let Your church shine in this moment of need in our nation. Heavenly Father, I too just lift up our brothers and sisters in Texas, Your children, and I know You care about them. Father, I just thank You that in this world, which You have made beautiful and reflect so much of Your glory, there is also the reminder that sin has caused death and this world is not our eternal destination, this world is temporary, this world can be wiped away by something as simple as water falling from the sky. And yet, as Your children, we have an eternal destination to look forward to, so I just pray that Your Spirit would just bring forth hope in the hearts of Your children in Texas, that while this temporal world has been shaken, has been for some of them almost utterly destroyed, that they have an eternal life with You to look forward to. Father, for those who do not know You, I just pray that they also would see the mortality of their own lives, the temporariness of the things that they collect, the fortresses that they build, help them to look at those around them who have perished, who have entered eternity and ponder their own fate. I pray that You would use this opportunity to call many into Your kingdom. I pray that the church in Texas, the church in this United States would just rise up, rise up in prayer, rise up in giving, in sharing, in caring. And Father, I do just pray that in the midst of this we would have an opportunity to see our fellow men and women as beings created in Your image. If they look like us, if they don’t look like us, if their culture is completely different, they still bear Your image. And some of Your image is coming out in the compassion and the care that is shown by even those we don’t agree with in the political spectrum, those we don’t agree with in the way they live their lives, teach us to love them, and in our love reach out to them. I pray that You would raise up Your church as a leader in healing the divisions that are in our country, Lord, the divisions that are in our neighborhoods and our cities. I pray that You might, through Your glory, use this disaster as a catalyst to achieve that great goal. And that years from now we would be able to look and see what a great thing God had done. My Father, Lord God, we just come to You this morning. And Father, we just confess that we are sinners. Father, we have absolutely nothing to offer You, God. We stand with empty arms. And Father, we’re just foolish to think that we have answers for this world. God, we tend to look to technology, we tend to look to money, we tend to look to government, political parties, and factions, and all these things. And Father, they don’t have the answer. Only You have the answer for this world. Even this week, we’ve heard the creation groan. There’s the vast flooding in Houston. [audio unclear] Houston. Father, the different factions going on in this country. Father, people in our community. Father, even people in this church that have had a dark moment, God, it is Your people who would be the salt and light. God, I pray that we would just depend upon You as never before, Father, and just cry out to You. God, I just pray You would stir Your church. Lord, there’s a lot of good stories coming out from Houston. And Father, I just pray for those who are there that are the salt and light, Father. I think of Robin and Dan and Denise and friends of mine that live down there who are going out. And Father, You spared their homes. But Father, they’re going out into mudding homes and they’re helping people. Father, I thank You for them. I pray for them, Father. And I just pray You give them the strength they need to continue to help. And I thank You for the churches that they’re a part of there, Father. Those churches are reaching out and those churches are going into homes of people they don’t know and they’re cleaning and helping those people, God. Father, I just pray this ever before, Lord, that You will stir a revival in this country. Yes, God. And God, I pray more than starting in this country or this state or this city, God, You begin in me and in each individual life of each person sitting in this room, God. Father, no matter how good we think we’re following You or how poor we know we’re following You, Father, we need You more. [audio unclear] Lord, I pray for those who are broken, who are maybe angry or disappointed in You, that You’ve allowed this to happen, whether they’re in Houston or anywhere else in the world for that matter, that blame You for the bad, but take credit for the good. Lord, as Pastor Vaughan said, this is an opportunity, an opportunity to lay down our differences, opportunity to lean on You. And I pray, God, that we would see opportunities, that my family would even see an opportunity to have compassion and to have kindness and humility, gentleness, and patience, Lord, You’ve said in Colossians, just put on a heart of these, that we would make an opportunity, take the opportunity to make a difference and to reach out. I pray, God, that we would not be distracted by just the daily grind. Lord, we would seek You and, Lord, ways that we can make a difference and that would extend even to here, would extend to all parts of the country and the world. But God, we would take this opportunity to recognize that through the destruction, Lord, Your hand is still at work, that we can walk away better, stronger, and of course closer to You, that You would be given the glory in all things. I don’t know how You do it, God, but You’re in the business of redemption. And, Lord, You take what is maybe ugly or bad, and with that, You put us in a place where we could not have come otherwise. And You get the glory. And I thank You, God, for that. And I just pray that we would see that, we would seek that, and that our hearts would just break and turn towards You in these times. “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God I want to thank You that You are the God of all creation. You are the God of all creation. You are the God of nature. You are the God of the winds and the rain and the floods, the snow, the cold, the heat. You are ruler and they are in subjection to You. Nothing passes through Your hand to humankind that You have not allowed. And God, we thank You for what this disaster will do. It’s going to [audio unclear] bear forth fruit of life in the physical and in the spiritual, God. I pray, Father, that You would, as You have opened those floodgates, that You would pour out Your Holy Spirit now upon Houston, upon that entire area, and that by the power of Your Holy Spirit You would draw men and women to repentance, to look to You to see the futility of their life, and to see that they have so much of their existence in things that can wither away and that can be gone in a moment. God, I pray that they would lift up their eyes to the mountains and see that You are their helper and that they would make You their all in all, God. That You would be the lifter of their countenance and that You would sustain them now, God. I pray, Jesus, as You have commanded us and commanded of us so true and rightfully in our weakness because we don’t pray for those in authority and for kings and for all men. We don’t do that as we should. So God, right now, we thank You for our president who has made today a national proclamation to every person in this entire country and has appealed to them to pray on behalf of our nation, to pray to the living God. And so God, we just come to You and we do lift up our fellow man in the tragedy, but we lift up our entire nation that is so filled with chaos and turmoil. And we live in these desperate, tumultuous times and craziness is all around us, God. We ask You to have mercy, and we ask You to pour out Your Holy Spirit upon this nation. God, this nation that You have created to be as one under You, God. And I ask that You would bring forth revival. And I pray, God, I pray that You would raise up Your church. I pray that You would raise up Your church in Houston, God. I pray for the strength of those pastors, for the strength of all those in authority there, the governor, all those in authorities, and all those different municipalities, the people that have come to help who are in any kind of authority, Lord, we just ask for grace and we ask for strength. We know that it could be so wearying and it could just seem impossible to get things back. But God, if it takes that You bring people to our wits’ end and to their wits’ end, that they would come to You, Jesus, God, have Your way, Lord. I do pray for this church, and I pray that we would each ask You, God, how You would send us, how You would use Liberty. God, I can testify that when the Katrina disaster happened, God, You raised up this church to go and to minister. And God, there were miracles that happened there. And we saw Your hand of providence there. Use us and fill us with Your love for people we didn’t even know, for people who are in such devastation and crisis, God, who bear Your image. And I just, I thank You for that opportunity, and I do ask that each of us would be praying, what would You have us do? What would You have Liberty do? Beyond prayer, God. God, I pray faith would have feet. Because faith without works is dead. God, we just acknowledge that You are good. Amid disasters, You are good. You always have purpose, and Your purpose is that all men might come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So bring revival, God. May it start with each individual heart here and within Your church. And I pray these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Lincoln’s Call to Humble Ourselves

“Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation,” March 30, 1863, “and whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us.” I’m not saying this is about Houston. This is about attitude. “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” God I pray for harvest workers in Houston, that You would send out harvest workers, fields are ripe and plentiful. Send Your Holy Spirit, Lord, to Houston to minister, God, to love, to humble, to encourage, to hold those who are broken and hurting. Lord, the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. When You show us that, when You show us that we ought to fear You, You are loving us, Lord. And so we pray that for Houston, that they would begin to fear You, Lord, that You would show them that You are to be respected, honored, and feared, and how much You love them. And You would draw men and women to the saving knowledge of Jesus, that You would show them their own brokenness and weakness, show us our own brokenness and weakness, and how desperately we need You each day. And just for Your glory, save men and women and save families, children, husbands, and wives. And God, have mercy. Lord, forgive us for being too proud to pray to the God that made us. Forgive us for being intoxicated by our own wealth and power and believing that it was by our own doing and our own strength and wisdom that we accomplished all this. You are the God of nations. And God just humble us, humble me. I do pray, God, for a prayer revival at Liberty. God, I pray for men and women to be saved, that we would both pray and share. You only promise to bless those who pray and share. Let’s all stand together.

The Lord’s Supper

Before we take the Lord’s Supper, I want to read the passage out of Luke. It says, “And He,” Jesus, “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them,” meaning His disciples of the time, “saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.’” The elements here are a symbol of the gospel in a nutshell. The bread is the broken body of Jesus. The body that hung on the cross. The one who died in the place of sinners. The wine represents of course His blood and He says the new covenant in His blood, which is shed for the remission of sins. Jesus pours out His blood. The Father accepts that blood as a payment, a ransom for those who have violated God’s law. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all fallen short of God’s standard because God’s standard isn’t goodness. God’s standard is perfection. And none of us have met it. How then do we, having not met the standard, have fellowship with the holy God? Well, He makes the way. He provides the way. It’s not by us being good enough, because we can never be good enough to be accepted by a holy God. But God gives us the way when He gives us Jesus. Because Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” So it’s through His broken body and shed blood which God accepts as a payment for our sins that God then opened the way, it is now open, that we can come to Him. We can know Him. Knowing Him is eternal life. So for those who’ve put their faith in Jesus, we come and take the supper as a reaffirmation of our faith, kind of a remembrance of His death, but also a remembrance of the covenant, our covenantal commitments to Him to walk in faith and obedience. So the supper is open to all those who believe in Jesus and believe that the elements represent His blood and His body. Lord Jesus, we thank You for dying for us on the cross. We thank You, Lord, that many here have received You as Savior. We pray for any here that maybe have not yet. We ask that they would understand, Lord Jesus, what really happened on that cross. What really happened when Your body was broken and Your blood was shed. That a way was being made for them. A payment was being made for them, not just for the world generically, but for them. And that they might believe in what You accomplished for them. They might call upon You as Savior. We ask this for Your glory. So you can come and take the Lord’s Supper, come forward and take it individually or as you feel led by the Lord. [audio unclear]